To all the people here that do not know how much to donate, I would go against a fixed sum, because it could be either too small in which case you would have way to much left for booze and cigarettes or too big in which case you would feel guilty by not being able to pay it on a bad month.
So, what I suggest is to donate a fixed percentage either of your total income, or of your remaining sum after paying the necessary expenses (rent, food, health). Netflix subscription and the likes doesn't count as necessary :lol: This way, on a good month you give more, on a bad month you give less, but either way you are covered. Someone said pay yourself first in some wealth book, we could change this to pay the Gods first. The idea is that by donating it would be returned to you manyfold either in more opportunities or exemption from disasters (financial, medical etc.), I don't have proof for this but this is how I felt it manifesting and I'm not talking here only about money or jos. If I don't give things away (time, money, energy) bad things tend to happen like I forget to pay something and I get a fine, or something breaks you get the picture.
The percentage should be something you are comfortable with psychically, be it 1% or 10% or 50%. And in my humble opinion it could also be increased as your income multiplies. For instance if you make per month:
- income < 100 $ go with 1%
- 100 $ < income < 500 $ go with 5%
- 1000 $ < income < 5000 $ go with 10%
- 5000 $ < income < 10k $ go with 15%
- income > 10k $ go with 30% or more
Beware, the more you earn the more the percentage will translate into an actual sum and it could be painful to give such a large amount. But this is the trick, you just apply the percentage, like in marriage, for better or worse :mrgreen:
But start with a percentage you feel absolutely at peace, because otherwise you would give it in some sort of half-hearted manner. Anyway, these are just for the sake of examples, not to be taken literally.
Anyway, I remember a post where I suggested the idea of incentives and some members here replied quite strongly and said you should do stuff just because is right and we don't need candy like for little kids :lol: . I don't want to gloat or anything like that, just want to say again we are human beings and we respond to rewards or punishments. It is in our nature, it is what it is. Our senses are assaulted from everywhere by hard stimuli, from commercials to family, friends and society. We do many things at once right now: we work, we dance, we drink, we go out, we watch movies, we meditate etc. It is not black and white as it once were when you mounted your horse, fought the battle, drink, eat, rest, repeat. It is very hard right now to have boundaries and most of them are subtle and easily influenced.
That being said, the subject of addiction comes to mind. You see, people didn't just start to smoke and drink because they were lazy and stupid. We used to have commercials where it was cool to smoke, that should ring a bell. What about video games? You get all those daily quests just to keep the buzz going. I don't even want to mention kids commercials or drugs without prescription. They do all kinds of studied, psychological things to get your last dime out of your pocket, or the last second of your waking time. These things are
designed to be addictive. I bet quite a huge number of you right here, fell for this or are falling for it right now. Played any vydia lately? Smoked some? 6-pack today? And yet, incentives for jos are looked down upon.
Anyway, bottom line I think is this. So far, jos was a kid, now it's time to man up. Applications written for hundreds of users differ greatly from those written for millions of users. It's just a matter of scalability. It is the same with mass production if you like, you had your local farmers who made cheese for an army of a few thousands. But if you want to gather the first million under your banner, you need to put your farmers into a factory.
To those saying they are broke, or don't have a job right now, it stands to reason to not give money right now. But getting a job, or getting an income should be a priority, because it offers independence. Giving an endless amount of RTR repetitions instead of 20 bucks is not the way either. Balance is key, we should develop in all directions simultaneously physically, mentally, spiritually and yes financially. I believe power obtained in small increments and spread evenly is the most desirable form of power.
And to those saying HP shouldn't keep going with this over and over again, please remember you didn't collect your toys spread around the house the first time your mom said so. Maybe not the second nor the third time and maybe just maybe you had to have your butt kicked to do it. And did you watch any youtube or tiktok lately? Those people are begging for donations and likes and whatever. Fyi I just read some chick makes 100k $ per month just because she has big natural boobs and she moved to another country to pay less taxes. I mean I am at a loss over this thinking I went to college, studied things, work hard and don't make nowhere near that. So I can only imagine what it must feel like for the people running jos and dedicating their lives to it. So, if you are an SS with big boobs you know what to do :lol:
So, in conclusion, there are many among us doing wonderful things for jos that money just can't buy, like clergy and guardians and so on, then there are those fighting every day via long RTR repetitions, those doing meditations, astrology readings, translations, website maintenance and I am grateful for your hard work. Fortunately, for the rest of us, even those terrible like myself, we now(actually for quite a long time) have mastercard
My 2 cents (I'm not giving them away, they're mine!)
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